1. Daily Express, Sabah (http://www.dailyexpress.com.my)
Leave Herald alone: Dompok , 24 January 2009
Penampang: Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Tan Sri Bernard Dompok urged the Home Affairs Ministry to let the court decide instead of continuing to "harass" the Catholic weekly, Herald, for using the word "Allah" in its latest publication.
Stating that it was an unnecessary controversy, he said the Home Affairs Ministry should just let the matter rest because it is pending hearing in court.
He was speaking to reporters after officiating at the presentation of the UPSR 2008 excellence awards, uniform assistance and Year Six "Aku Janji" pledge at SK St Theresa, Inobong here Friday.
"Lately, the Ministry of Home Affairs has been harassing the Herald to such an extent that they have to go to court and (now) waiting for hearing," he said, adding that based on comments, including by lawyers, on the issue, the Herald should be allowed to publish as they have done before, pending the outcome of the case.
"It is not for the Ministry of Home Affairs to pre-empt the decision of the court," said Dompok who is also the President of the United Pasok Momogun Kadazandusun Murut Organisation (Upko).
He was responding to the reports quoting Minister Datuk Seri Syed Hamid Albar warning the Herald that "the show of defiance could cause conflict and anger among other races in the country".
Syed Hamid also said that "if anything happens, then don't put the blame on us" and that he would refer the matter to the Ministry's legal unit.
"There's no reason for the Home Affairs Ministry to kelam kabut (get all excited) to look at this. I think they are using very strong language (against the Herald)," said Dompok.
He added that the Herald, is just a small organisation having a circulation of about 14,000 a week out of the Christian population of about two million and slightly more than a million Catholics in the country.
"It is only being sold in churches so I don't see how it can confuse the people," he said, adding that it had also complied with the requirement of the Ministry to stamp the word "Terhad" (limited) on every edition.
Dompok said the matter would have come up during the premiership of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad "but I think wisdom prevailed".
He said the usage of the word "Allah" should be viewed from the historical perspective since the terminology had come about when Bahasa Melayu was used by the people even before Malaysia (existed).
He said it was the language used by the people of the Borneo territories (as the) Malay tacit lingua franca, even though English was used in most schools but there were also some schools that were conducted in Malay at that time.
"So religion developed along the line of communications and in this particular village (Kampung Inobong), for instance, I didn't have occasion to use the terminology because sermons and proceedings in church are conducted in Kadazan and "Allah" in Kadazan is "Kinoingan".
"When I went to school in KK La Salle, when I go to church it was in English so 'God' is God," he said.
However, Dompok said in rural areas when the predominance of Bahasa Malaysia came about, the usage of "Allah" became more pronounced, especially after the importation of Bibles written in the Indonesian language, which refers to God as "Allah". He said the terminology is widely used in Indonesia and also in Arab countries by Christians.
"So it is a universal terminology used in the Christian world when they are praying in their vernacular language. There is no reason for the Home Ministry to continue harassing the Catholic Herald," he said.
Based on reports, Dompok said it was "as though the Herald was trampling on the toes of everybody while in fact I feel the Ministry of Home Affairs is using a sledgehammer to crack a nut in full force to silence the Herald".
"We are living in a country that practices democracy, freedom of religion and that the first principle of the Rukun Negara is Belief in God. People want to belief in God so I think they should be allowed to so," he said.
Dompok also could not believe that people were even suggesting disallowing worship by other religions in Malay.
"I said how can that be? Bahasa Malaysia does not belong to the Malays alone, this is the language of all Malaysians, your and my language.
"So I feel if there is indeed objection to that then perhaps it's time for us to look for a new national language so that there would not be "confusion" among Malaysians," he said.
To a question, Dompok said he had spoken to the Home Minister and brought up the issue in the Cabinet.
"In fact it was the day after the (Federal) Cabinet meeting that they gave back the Herald the license to publish in Malay," he said.
2. Dakwat&Kertas Blog （http://dakwat-kertas.blogspot.com)
by Fuad Hassan
CHRISTIAN GOD NOT ALLAH, 23 January 2009
CHRISTIAN TRANSLATION OF THE TRIUNE GOD USING THE TERM ALLAH: A CASE OF WORLD WRONGLY USED
I. The Important of Language in Connection with Mind and Religion
It was reported that Peter Lombard’s Four Books of Sentences recorded the following concern of Jerome, on “heresy arises from words wrongly used”.
Those remarks by St Jerome of Stridonium (d.420), who was regarded as the most learned of the Latin Fathers, clearly reflected how paramount the important of language was for him, particularly in relation to theological matters.
The fact is, that there is a profound connection between language and reason, as words and term connote what is conceptualized or understood by the mind.
To quote Prof. Dr Syed Muhammad Naquib al-Attas’s latest work Tinjauan Ringkas Peri Ilmu dan Pandangan Alam (Penang:USM,2007), “bahasa merupakan alat akal fikri yang sekaligusjuga mempengaruhi pemikiran si penggunanya.” That is to say, “language is the instrument of the reasoning of its users.”
For one may well ask, what is the purpose of language if not to make true meanings of words become intelligible to the mind? And as such, what is the fundamental purpose of language if not to project the worldview of its users in a faithful manner?
Because using language correctly is a cognitive action, it is imperative for its users to be meticulous in its “correct usage” as well as in the pursuit of its “authentic meaning.”
As far as fundamental religious matters are concerned, to use language incorrectly introduces confusion to the mind of its users. Words wrongly used will inevitably impinge upon semantic change in theological concepts and the way one views reality and truth.
Hence, the pressing need to exercise constant vigilance in detecting erroneous linguistic usage.
II. The Grammar of Christian Triune God
In the Christian context, it is in order to avoid such heresy arising from the erroneous use of words and terms that St Thomas Aquinas (d.1274) said this in his Summa Theologica: “when we speak of the trinity we must proceed with care”.
As if anticipating detractors who would argue that the quest for right words in divine matters is “toilsome”, Aquinas insisted that it was well worth the effort. St Augustine (d.430), who was arguably the most important Christian thinker after St Paul, said that in comparison to the wrong usage in theology, “nowhere is error more harmful.”
Following another eminent doctor of the Western Church, St Hilary of Poitiers (d.c 367), Aquinas advised Christians to shun the term the “singular” God, as that would exclude their notion of God whose essence their notion of God whose essence is common to the three distinct Hypostases.
Likewise, Aquinas advised Christians to avoid the term the “only” God, as the adjective “only” (Latin unici) would take away their notion of the number of Devine Persons. In Aquinas’s words, “We do not say ‘the only God,’ for Deity is common to many”: referring to their belief that deity is common to the co-eternal Persons: the Fether, the only-begotten Son, the Holy Ghost.
III. Translation of the Triune God using the term Allah:
A Case of Word Wrongly Used
Naturally, I find that there are many contradictions between what was advised by Aquinas, who was the foremost Western theologian of the Church, with the concerns of a few Malaysian Christian leaders recently highlighted in our media. While Aquinas advised his co-religionist to exclude from God the idea of “singularity” or “uniqueness”, a few Christians in Malaysia (or in any country for that matter) insist on translating their notion of triune God using the term Allah
IV. “He is Allah, the Absolute One…”(al-ikhlas, 112), etc.
But there a fundamental issues they have to address first without confusing themselves and creating linguistic anarchy, because among the firmly integral purports of the term Allah are al-Ahad (the Absolute One), al-Wahid (the Absolute Unique) and al-Witr (the Absolute Singular, the Unequalled) Who has no son, nor father, nor partner, nor likeness.
These purports have been mentioned by way of describing who Allah is in the Qur’an as well as in its interpretation by the authentic traditions of the Prophet Muhammad, who is, for that matter, considered by experts as the most eloquent of the Arabs.
In order for us to see how those worldviews are contrasted to each other, and hence to be careful in our translation, it is sufficient to compare the abovementioned statement on God by Aquinas with the following. Commenting on the meaning of al-Wahid al-Ahad, Muhyiddin Ibn al-‘Arabi (d.1240) had simply this to say his Futuhat Makkiyyah: “Allah is Unique, the Absolute One with respect to His godhead, there is no God (Ilah) except He.”
As far as the authentic meaning and correct usage of the term Allah throughout the ages are concerned, the Tahdhib of al-Azhari (d.980) and the Lisan al-‘Arab of Ibn Manzur (d.1311) have documented that, excepting Allah, there is no being to whom the purports of al-Wahidand al-Ahad are applicable together, or to whom al-Ahad is applicapble alone. ”Verily,I,-I alone-am Allah: there is no God (Ilah) but I: therefore worship Me” (the Qur’an, Ta Ha, 20:14).
V. Allãh is a Proper Name; God is a Common Name
That is why the term Allah is proper name which is never shared by others throughout the history of language. The term Allah is not “communicable both in reality and in opinion”, if we want to use Aquinas’s technical terminology.
On the contrary, such terms as Ilah (God in Arabic), Tuhan (God in Malay) or God (in English) are communicable, and have indeed been used to others. Earlier, we have note Aquinas’s assertion that the term God is common to the three Summa Theologica which explains the statement an eastern theological doctor of the Greek and Latin Churches.
VI. Allãh is a Proper Noun; God is an appellative Noun
Now, according to St John of Damascus, the term God in Greek as well as in Latin (theo) is a derivative, from either of these three root-words. It is either from a particular word which means “to cherish all things”, or from another word which means “to burn” (for the Christian God is “a consuming fire”, according to St John), or from another word which means “to consider all things”.
Marshalling his argument on that premise, Aquinas concluded that the name God in this context is not a proper noun. On the contrary, it is an appellative noun, or a title, for its signifies the divine nature in the possessor, either in the sense that He is the “Cherisher”, the “Taker of account of everything”, or the “Comprehender of everything”, and so on.
VII. Allãh Has No Plural; God’s Plural is Gods
Aquinas also corroborated his significant conclusion by the fact that the term God has plural (Gods), as in the Biblical text “God presides in heavenly council; in the assembly of the Gods he gives his decision… I have said, You are Gods” (Psalms 82.1,6).
Here, the argument on the right to translate a common noun God using the proper noun Allah crumbles; it is only correct to translate God using Tuhan. As far as the proper noun Allah is concerned, it has absolutely no plural, reflecting the notion on the One and Only God whose Essence absolutely excludes the purport of consisting of three distinct co-eternal persons, whether in the imagination, in actuality, or in supposition.
“Do not say:’Trinity’. Desist [from this assertion] it is better for you! Allah is but the Only God (Ilah Wahid); Glory be to Him-that He should have a son!” (The Qur’an, al-Nisa’,4:171)
VIII. The Proper Noun Allãh Neither Belongs to Any National Language Nor a Derivative
Furthermore, the fact that it is a proper noun alone renders erroneous the critical assumption that the term Allah belongs to a notion language and is an Arabic derivative. Indeed, for those who care enough to check the truth, such an absurd claim has long been debunked as inconsistent with the rules of the Arabic language itself b authorities like Ibn al-Barri, a-Layth and al-Khalil (d.160/777) in his Kitab al-‘Ayn.
Al-Zabidi, in his Taj al-‘Arus, remarked that “the most sound view on the name Allah is that it is a proper noun given by the Essence, the Necessary Being. The name Allah combines the attributes of Perfection altogether, it is a non-derivative word.”
Then, al-Zabidi (d.1790) quotes he authority of Ibn al’Arabi (d.1240), who stated that “the term Allah is a proper name denoting the real and true God (al-Ilah al-Haqq), a denotion that comprises all the Unique most beautiful Divine Names.”
Last but far least on the “correct usage” and “authentic meaning” of the term Allah, al-Tahanawi (d.1745), in his dictionary of the technical terms relating to metaphysics, the Kashshaf Istilahat al-Funun, stated that “it is inspired to His servants that the real name Allah is a proper name of the Essence… The verifiers (al-Muhaqqiqun) holds that the name Allah is a non-derivative word; indeed, it is an extemporized proper name (ism murtajal) as it can be described but does not describe.”
（NOTE）
Dr. Mohd Sani Badron, Senior Fellow / Director,
Centre for Economics & Social Studies, Institute of Islamic Understanding Malaysia (IKIM)
Paper presented in Seminar Ta’dib Islami, held by Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia, Kompleks Anjung Rahmat, on Sunday 24th February 2008. The original paper was submitted to The Star for IKIM views weekly column on 12th February 2008; however, for unknown reason, The Star at it’s own discretion had declined to print the article.
This paper is not intended to be exhaustive a other important aspects of the same issue have been identified and resolved by Dr Syed Ali Tawfik al-Attas (Director-General, IKIM), “Kemelut Pemikiran Agama,” Mingguan Malaysia 6 January 2008 and Md Asham Ahmad (Fellow, IKIM) in an unpublished article, “Do You (Really) Believes in Allah?”. For both see Appendices.
（End）
